adminBoth a club and a player. We are watching a genius, you do know that, don’t you? In Lionel Messi, Barcelona have a player as great as any to have walked the earth. Up there with Pele, with Diego Maradona, with Johan Cruyff or Zinedine Zidane.
It no longer matters that he has the good fortune to play in a magnificent team. What he does on nights like this transcends such petty quibbles. These were his 52nd and 53rd goals of the season. It is simply untrue to suggest that any player of talent would score them, surrounded by these exceptional teammates.
Messi is a phenomenon, a class apart, he defines matches like no other contemporary, not even the mighty Cristiano Ronaldo.
Barcelona had to win by more than two goals to progress here and Messi had the match won within the space of 10 minutes.
The start that Barcelona made, with his inspiration, was so startlingly good that Milan never recovered. Messi had his team a goal ahead after five minutes before adding another on 40, but Barcelona’s dominance was almost total in the moments between.
He shocked Milan with his brilliance, baffled them with his imagination, punished them with the precision of his finishing. It was one of the greatest performances in the history of this competition.
The game had barely taken shape when Messi stamped his mark on it. He played a 1-2 with Xavi Hernandez that somehow charted a path through the six — yes, six — Milan players who had surrounded the pair, before finishing with a left-foot shot so perfect in its placing that goalkeeper Christian Abbiati remained on his spot, flat-footed.
The second was no less clinical. Milan captain Massimo Ambrosini lost the ball to Andres Iniesta, who sent the ball through to Messi. He in turn threaded his shot through the legs of Philippe Mexes and out of Abbiati’s despairing grasp.
No hand for Messi in the decisive third, but make no mistake, this was his victory throughout. Milan looked so intimidated by his presence, so vulnerable to his wit that, having softened them up, Messi could afford to take a back seat just once.
As it was, Javier Mascherano won the ball in the heart of the pitch, found Iniesta, who found Xavi and eventually David Villa — his finish as exquisitely placed as Messi’s in the first half. It doesn’t happen by accident, this stuff.
Just like the harrying and chasing that so unsettled Milan, the lightning speed with which Barcelona recovered possession, when it goes right, every painstaking minute on the training ground can be seen in Barcelona’s play. The goal that gave the scoreline air was straight from the textbook.
Snuffing out a Milan threat, then breaking quickly, with purpose. No taking the ball into the corner flag to waste precious seconds here; they hit Milan where it hurts: in the net. At this point, a Milan goal would have been fatal and deafening whistles and catcalls greeted every second of possession by Massimiliano Allegri’s side.
They won a free-kick some 40 yards from goal which Robinho and Sulley Muntari contrived to mess up, losing possession. Milan broke. Messi played in Alexis Sanchez whose cross found overlapping left back Jordi Alba.
The remontada was complete. It had been a horrid and sobering experience for Milan, whose fans were hushed in their Nou Camp eyrie. A member of Europe’s traditional elite, they will have hated being so publicly mastered.
The way Barcelona began the match was, quite literally, stunning. Neutrals who had been so impressed with Milan in the first leg were stunned. Milan were stunned. Even the home support, whipped into a frenzy of noise and excitement, seemed unusually affected by the ferocity with which their team attacked the game. – Mailonline.
Online Reporter